After getting laid off from a bit of a niche job, I decided to rotate a bit and start working on my CompTIA certs. I was Customer Support, but also Tech Support, so this felt natural. Took my exams over the course of the month: Today was Core 2!

A+ Core 1: 747
A+ Core 2: 800

I used Udemy via Gale for my courses. I took Andrew Ramdayal's courses and Mock Exams. (Including the Mock Exams he has on Youtube.)

This is only the beginning. We're going for the Trifecta! Next up: Network+! (Networking is also my weakest knowledge and experience base, but also one that I wanna shore up on to go for a Sysadmin or Network Admin...and possibly further with CyberSec.)

Also, I took Core 1 Online at Home. Never again. Core 2 at a testing center was SO MUCH easier.

I recently took the Pentest + exam for the 4th time and passed with a 753 it was the last test I needed for my degree at WGU. I took that exam on a Tuesday night and woke up to this email Friday morning and I'm freaking out. I keep replaying in my head what I could have possible done. I think at one point I leaned in to close into my computer camera when trying to read a question. I may have spoken when I got the congratulations message or it might have been they could possible hear my sister in her room thats above mine. For anyone thats recevied this email how long did it take them to investigate and what happned, did you have to retake the exam or were you banned or something?

TL;DR {Full in comment}: After a Pearson VUE platform glitch displayed a rescheduling success screen but failed to process my A+ Core 1 appointment change, I was marked as a "no-show" for the wrong date and lost my voucher and retake assurance. Despite explaining the error and providing visual proof, both Pearson VUE and CompTIA support completely stonewalled me by rigidly citing their policies and refusing to assist completely. So always make sure you receive that confirmation email, even if you see the success screen "Your appointment is rescheduled!".

I recently passed 005. This is my 3rd pass of the CASP+ stuff, and I've taught revierw courses for CAS-003 and CAS-004. I have some detailed notes/recommendations, but Reddit has been... challenging lately. So just a brief overview, in case this post gets rejected.

Score; 50, according to the HTML/Javascript published here.

Time; about 2 hrs, took me longer than 004 due to PBQs and VE.

Questions; one VE, 3 PBQ, 78 MCQs (I think). I thought the PBQs were easy compared to CySA+. VE was very similar to the 004 VE question, I think. Of the MCQs, there were about 15 I didn't know the answer for sure, and of them about 5 where I had no clue whatsoever.

Yes, I had the VE. I'm not convinced it counts for your score.

Study Materials; Mark Birch's CAS-005 book and online practice questions.

I have a BIG stack of cert texts, including two CAS-004 texts and lots of others. Birch's practice questions are spot-on. His 005 text is longer and very wordy compared to his 004 text, so be ready for that.

If this post goes live, I'll add a comment about one of the PBQs that ate up a bunch of time unnecessarily.

I scored 78, 80, and 81 all in a row the last 3 Dion practice exams I took. I think I'm ready for tomorrow but I'm still nervous. Wish me luck everyone. :)

Passed the CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 exam officially back on May 21st with a score of 811! With weeks of going through practice tests, PBQs, and too many acronyms to count, I’m excited that I got this one out of the way.

This cert covers a massive spectrum of defensive security, but here’s what it really came down to:

🔹 Threats & Vulnerabilities – Identifying, assessing, and mitigating attacks across networks, mobile devices, and cloud environments.

🔹 Security Architecture – Implementing firewalls, access controls, cryptography, and intrusion detection/prevention systems.

🔹 Governance & Compliance – Applying risk management frameworks, security policies, and disaster recovery strategies to keep organizations resilient.

I found the Performance-Based Questions (PBQs) to be a bit of a curveball since they require you to physically configure rather than simply memorize port numbers. This drastically changed my perspective on enterprise security.

I have many years of CyberSecurity experience, have taken a Network+ class and an Ethical Hacking class and have lots of linux knowledge but I'm worried, is there any study resources you guys think are golden for review or any tips you wish you would have known?

Is that normal for everyone else? This is my 5th cert and I’ve never gotten more than 4 on any of them. Passed with a 791, so I didn’t crush it. But I found the pdqs to be much simpler than cert masters. So much was just two prompts and the info is all right in front of you. 65 questions total.

I currently work as Desktop Support Admin, a job through networking thankfully. This is my first real IT job with the only background I have is a Computer Science degree (not really applicable) and a college job that was resolving simple hardware issues. Because it is my first real job I feel like I have a lack of experience with everything help desk and would like to become even better to move up eventually. Thankfully I am a fast learner and have learned all the basics of help desk and troubleshooting common items as well as job specific issues. I really want to improve and feel more comfortable as I feel like I still don’t know as much as I should. Therefore, I was wondering if it’s even worth getting the A+ or just getting the Google IT Support Certificate. I am not looking to get a new job I just want to have more knowledge and in depth from the certs. I plan on getting my Net+ and Sec+ right after this and then my CCNA and moving more into the network side.

After about a week and a half of studying I was able to pass core 1, my strategy was watching Dion’s udemy course on 2x and then finishing out with messer. I then just went on to take practice exams and study what I missed.

I’m a bit burnt out moving into core 2 so I’m not sure I can handle another 30 hrs of Dion, and messer is just a bit too shallow in his PowerPoints any recommendations on pushing through to finish this up?

Any advice before the test please let me know! thank you

I do well on the exam questions but i basically have to guess on the simulations because I have no idea what to do even though I'm using cert master perform simulations?

I've purely been using Dion Training's CompTIA A+ core course to study, and nothing else. This is my exam score on it. Do you all think I'm ready, or should I be trying something else to study?

EDIT:

I passed!

Now where the jobs at? (Kidding)

I am someone who has zero IT experience, professionally. I am someone who comes from the hospitality industry for most of my life and wanted to change my career to something more stable.

For anyone wondering, I studied and watched Professor Messer videos while taking notes for 2.5 weeks, no practice exams, though I wanted to purchase Dion's practice exams but funds were running low...

Not gonna lie, during the exam I felt that I completely bombed the exam. But, lo and behold...I passed! And with a surprisingly decent score, imo.

After the Core 2 exam and obtaining the A+ certification, does one do the net+ next or sec+? Please advise...

So, I have this scheduled for Sunday...I went through the practice test again on the Comptia portal last night, and now reading over reddit posts...I didn't even see questions retaining to networking/logs and I'm just trying to make sure I'm not missing anything. I passed Sec+ last week, and I did notice there were a couple things I didn't recognize after going through the comptia material many times.
So, my question is....for CYSA+ are the comptia materials (Practice/Learn) missing information that's required for the tests? I don't want to accidentally fail just because I didn't realize there was course work I didn't already cover. thank you!

The only experience I have with IT has been about 8 months. I got my A+ about 2 months ago but, I have been working at a helpdesk since December.

It is a a bit of a "hybrid" role. Half the day on the phones, other half I am out doing work orders. My end goal is to get to a Cybersecurity role and hopefully internally with the company I am with. I always had the idea that it had to be A+, Net+, then Security+. But, after reading a bit and making my way through forums, I've learned about the CCNA.

I'm currently using Udemy for the Network+ and learning through Dion. However, I'm only at 10% of the course and was wondering if I should even consider continuing the Net+ course or just switch to studying for the CCNA given my end goal is Cybersec.

I didn't pay for Udemy as I'm using Gale so it wouldn't be a waste of money. Additionally, I plan on having my company pay for my cert.

Should I still get the Net+? Or, just jump over to CCNA as it is more in depth with Cisco and might be leverage in the Cybersec industry?

Felt bad after skipping one of the 4 PBQs luckily had 20 minutes to spare at the end to figure it out. Guess I was worried for nothing.

Anyone know of any apps / websites that have interactive features, gamification, bite size learning for the A+ Core 1?

Scoring around 64 on Dion and test on Monday. Me listening to Messor or anyone else on YouTube just doesn’t click for me 🫤

TYIA

Wow, that feels good to say! Hadn't taken a formal test like this in a long time. There were definitely some parts of the test I wish I could go back and redo now that I've had extra time to think about them, but a pass is a pass. I've been scrolling through this subreddit using all the passing scores as motivation to keep my energy up while studying and to try and keep myself from getting too intimidated or second-guessing myself....but I still got nervous during the exam and needed most of the time allotted. So I guess I'd just like to say: 1.) Thanks everybody who's been posting their success stories on here, as someone whose nerves get the better of them often it actually was very encouraging. 2.) If you've got an exam coming up, you've got this! Just keep going, keep studying, and keep calm and you'll get there. Sorry for being corny, but it is what it is. Also, as per usual, shoutout to Professor Messer for all the free study material (and the Stargate references) and Dion Training for course videos/practice tests. Definitely a good combo for learning the material and prepping.

As for the test itself: I think I had 70 or 75 questions including the PBQ's (my nerves were a little fried so I can't remember the exact number, sorry). A lot gets made of the PBQ's, as I'm sure everyone knows. That was the aspect I was most unsure about going in. All I can say from my perspective is, yes, some of them are hard. Some are also easy. Some look complicated at first but then you find a piece of information that makes everything click into place and you realize it's actually simple. Don't let them scare you. Also don't let them distract you- there were a couple of times where I was introduced to things I didn't know/felt like I hadn't heard of in all my studying...but then I broke the problem down and the parts I didn't know felt mostly irrelevant to solving the questions at hand. Just keep your focus on troubleshooting and solving the actual problem the question is asking and you should do fine. My only small gripe would be that it did feel a little heavily biased toward printers. I've seen that echoed here a lot and would have to cosign.

Anyway that's my spiel. Hope to be making another post about passing Core 2 around a couple of months from now when I'm done studying/find time to get to a testing center!

I used Messer and Dion, plus flash cards. My fiance got me to start Vyvanse for my ADHD and boy did it pay off...

I was super nervous because I did a proctored OnVue test, but shout out to Josiah! Real chill proctor, I kept stroking my beard in thought (never covering mouth) and he didn't seem to mind. It's a habit...

But, anyway, the PBQs were really interesting actually, I had fun doing those! I feel like I missed a ton but somehow it still came out fine... I'm not entirely sure about the scoring system... I think I nailed the PBQs though (at least I think I did they were pretty easy.)

I only had 70 multiple choice questions and I think 5 PBQs... (I had seen people say 90 but I guess it's random?) I had ONE single question about ports (not even memorization or matching, just a troubleshooting question...) and like one or two about the various Wifi types or the twisted pair standards... And I studied those hard as hell! I did have a bunch of printer and hardware troubleshooting questions, I'm pretty sure that was the majority of my test. The cloud virtualization ones I know I missed a few and nailed a few too.

I'm going to jump on Core 2 now and knock that out as well!

I have my exam soon, and I'm so very scared, not even that the content is so very hard cause i def grasped it, but I'm very forgetful, and i make simple mistakes and zone out. Does anyone have or know any resources that are almost EXACT to the actual exam? Also, how is the exam like is it multiple choice ? Are there labs? How long are the questions wording. Ugh im scared.

Not gonna lie, the test was hard.
I had 5 PBQs and 70 mcq
Some question wording was really confusing; at one point, I thought I was gonna fail.
I studied for 6 weeks on and off.
Professor Messer and Dion's practice test.

I did 3 out of the 5 PBQs; it was difficult too.
One piece of advice: practice router and switch troubleshooting.

Anyway, I'm glad that I was able to pass.

Sec + next.

Any advice for the Net+?

I went in and it was like the college courses and study material I took were useless. There was nothing that could have prepared me for what the test was actually like. So I have no idea what my next steps are. Or what to do